If not much of a cook ! What would you cook if you wanted to make someone feel cared for but they don’t eat meat

[Recentgradneedingachance]

Hello

I want to treat family who I haven’t seen for over a year. I want them to feel well cared for when the are with for lunch and dinner. So lovelies I not much of a cook 🫣what would you do ?

Baked camembert is super tasty and very easy:

Good bread - best toasted or really crusty

Camembert, honey, garlic, some nuts.

Take camembert out it's packet and put it in a relatively small pyrex baking dish.

Take the skin off the garlic, stick some cloves into the camembert.

Drizzle a good load of honey over, sprinkle with nuts - hazelnuts work well, most would be okay.

Bake at a lowish temperature until it's all melty inside - maybe 15-20 mins at 150 degrees.

Eat with crusty bread and whatever veggies you fancy.

As a vegetarian, you seem like a very thoughtful host! I’m very used to people saying “oh sorry I completely forgot!” And just rooting me a margherita pizza out of the freezer.

I do think it’s hard to suggest meals without knowing their preference- but I would definitely suggest thinking what you’d serve up if you were hosting meat eaters and then just adapt the meal from there. Personally I wouldn’t enjoy half the meals suggested. I hate that vegetarian meals seem to be synonymous with healthy chickpea and lentil concoctions.

Maybe a nice pasta dish? Vegetarian lasagne is a good suggestion but could be tricky if you’re not used to cooking.

Also if you’re having meat eaters and non vegetarians at the same dinner- I really love when everyone’s eating the same thing! Even if mine is a veggie version of it- there’s just nothing worse than when everyone’s tucking into a delicious roast with all the trimmings and the veggie option is quiche and salad.

I'd go for chilli

OP, do they eat any fish or eggs?

This is one of my absolute favourite veggie meals - it's indulgent and delicious. ottolenghi.co.uk/pages/recipes/curried-cauliflower-cheese-filo-pie

I've been meaning to make that!

Homity pie.

Sicilian caponata.

Garlic mushrooms, baked sweet potatoes and roasted cauliflower with cheese sauce.

Do it, it's absolutely delicious 😋

The above are what I'd like someone to make for me now, as I'm alone curled up with a cold, but instead I have baked potatoes and a box of chocolates, which isn't bad either. :)

Baked potato, veggie chilli, grated cheese ,sour cream. Apple crumble and custard.

@WinterCrow , they are vegetarians, so they won't be eating fish.

@Grealish Personally I wouldn’t enjoy half the meals suggested. Me neither.
Soup isn't a meal IMO, and mushroom risotto sounds awful.

2 or 3 curries, rice, chapattis... so easy and looks like you have spend hours.

Coconut dal is an absolute doddle (vegan and gluten free) I'd do a roasted cauliflower and peppers curry and a mushroom curry. Takes me around 30 minutes to make the lot. If you aren't confident you can use a pre bought paste for the mushrooms and the cauliflower curries, but it's easy to make your own in a food processor

Veg lasagne

there’s just nothing worse than when everyone’s tucking into a delicious roast with all the trimmings and the veggie option is quiche and salad.

The one I mind is when the meat eaters get a meal centred around the meat but the veggies get a meal centred round a piece of pastry or a piece of roasted veg.

Quiche and salad sounds great but not when everyone else is tucking into a delicious hot roast dinner.

If fish eaters 3 fish (from Iceland) Wellington.
If they eat eggs, Quiche Lorraine + vegetable or salad of choice.

@PollyPeachum , fish isn't vegetarian and neither is quiche lorraine.

Oh my god

Red Dragon Pie, so delicious!

@viques I think Dragons are technically meat 🤣.

Nah, I had to Google that and it sounds delicious. Thanks for sharing it.

Also George Alaghais family coconut Daal recipe on the BBC web page. Delicious, but add lots of garlic.

https://www.marionskitchen.com/chilli-crisp-garlic-butter-spaghetti/

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2022/sep/10/marmite-risotto-tomato-crispy-chilli-butter-recipe-meera-sodha-vegan

You are welcome It’s such an ancient recipe, but I love it. Sarah Brown was one of the first cooks who produced interesting vegetarian recipes in the UK, seems hard to believe it now.

Honestly my brother made me this and I loved it

https://www.hellofresh.co.uk/recipes/roasted-veggie-lentil-jumble-5d415e96e203d2000d5668c7

And you can make some of it self serve so people can omit i.e. feta if not to their taste

Roasted veg lasagne is delicious - plenty of recipes online which I would recommend you follow if you're not a regular cook.

Mine is a tray full of peppers/red onions/cubed butternut squash/aubergine and courgette, roasted in the oven til caramelised. I then make a basic tomato pasta sauce with chopped onions and garlic, simmer it for a while til onions are cooked through, and stir in all the veg. Then layer it up with the lasagne sheets, top with cheesy sauce and grated cheese and bake.

What would the dying person like?

What will get their taste buds zinging? ( or trying to?) Thai flavours?

Christ when dying being offered a vegetable lasagne or curried lentils would finish me off. That would be The End.